N.Y. police ridiculed for busting chess players in park

“Drop that bishop and come out with your hands up!” says Wednesday’s New York Post, as it ridiculed N.Y. policemen for busting seven men who were playing chess in an upper Manhattan park.

The men were charged with failing to comply with signs posted in the park that read “Adults allowed in playground areas only when accompanied by a child under the age of 12.”

But, would the N.Y. Post be so quick to judge the police department’s actions if they knew that one of the men had nine priors for reckless endangerment, grand larceny, drug possession, and criminal mischief? And, that another was arrested previously for assault with a weapon?

“The Police acted appropriately in issuing criminal summonses last month to men in a section of Inwood Hill Park restricted to children with their parents or other minors,” Paul J. Browne, Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Police Department told the National Post.

“The precinct conditions team there responded to community complaints about drinking, drug use and other problems, including violations of Park Department regulations designed to protect children. The cavalier treatment of the story in effect damned police for doing their job. Had they not addressed the condition, no doubt they would have been damned for leaving the men in the children’s section,” he says.

However, not everyone in the area agrees that the police of the 24th precinct acted appropriately.

“Is chess really something that should be considered a threat to the neighborhood?” Inwood resident and mom Joanne Johnson wrote in a letter to Mayor Bloomberg, the city council and the police commissioner, the N.Y. Post reports.

“This incident is an embarrassment to the officers from the 34th Precinct who felt that it was necessary to use their badge and authority to issue such a random summons,” Johnson added.